I love giving gifts to people. One of my favorite things in the world is wrapping Christmas presents and imagining the excitement the recipients will have when they open their gifts. When I give gifts, I am literally bursting at the seams with joy and excitement because I just can’t wait to make the other person’s day. What makes me even happier is when the recipient of my gift truly loves their gift. It fills my heart and soul with so much warmth to give a gift that brings someone else joy. So often, we talk about Jesus being a gift to us. However, it wasn’t until today that this truth really clicked for me. I always imagined that God was like, “Ugh! The humans screwed up my plans. I guess I will give my son to save them. It’s the only way really. Sigh….”
NO!!!! Today we were singing joy to the world and I was like I bet God is bursting at the seams to see us, the recipients, so happy to receive his gift. Like what a concept. God didn’t forcibly give his son to save us because he had to. He gave his son because he loved us and wanted us to have joy. And, just like when I give gifts to others, I think this brings our heavenly father plenty of joy too. I hope this helps somebody rise a little higher today, Brooklyn
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I have just started reading Praying God’s Word by Beth Moore. Every day or two I have been trying to read through a few of her “bible inspired” prayers until I find one that I want to focus on, memorize, and repeat for the next few days. One that truly inspired me today was her prayer from 1 Chronicles 29:11. Beth wrote, “Yours, my Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, my own heavenly Father, is the kingdom and You are exalted as head above all” (p. 23).
What if we, no, what if I truly believed these words? What if I prayed this prayer from the pit of my soul with conviction? I am a daughter of the King the ruler of heaven and earth. Why don’t I act like it? I live my life every day in a place of worry and insecurity. Is that what Jesus died for? Did Christ die that I might live my life chained to anxiety and depression? No, of course not! My savior died so that I could share in the blessings that come with being a child of God. The glitch is that I don’t really believe I’m the child of God scripture says I am. This isn’t going to change overnight, but hopefully, with a lot of prayer and a little faith on my part, I can grow to live my life from a place of faith in who my heavenly father really is. Today I caught a glimpse of who I am. I am a daughter of the King. I highly recommend, if you want to be changed through prayer and God’s word, reading this book. I ordered my copy of Praying God’s Word from www.ChristianBook.com (click the button below to take a look), but there are plenty of other retailors you can purchase a copy from. Rising because of His grace, Brooklyn Back in my day, we didn’t have black Friday shopping on Thursday night. My family, after partaking in the annual feast, we would pull the artificial Christmas tree out of the depths of some closet and have family time putting up the tree. This would take most of the night, and the rest of the decorating would take up the weekend. Thus, we would finish out November with prepping and decorating our house for the holidays. This tradition went on for years and years until…. My sister… Desi (still age 7) climbed the dang this last year. I’m not joking. She climbed the Christmas tree. She thought that because our cat did it, she could do it too. That demolished tree promptly went in the trash. This year we went black Friday shopping on thanksgiving night. It was a blast! My mom was talking to me last week about feeling weird because we didn’t have a Christmas tree in our house. I told her that I had given it some thought and: the tree is a giant idol we put up once a year in the center of our house, we put sacrifices around it, and then the whole family worships it on Christmas morning. “No,” I said, “We are going to do things differently this year.” Now, I did not propose that we opt out of all gift giving for the year, but I wanted our family to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas and not that confounded tree. *Public Service Announcement* I am not saying that Christmas trees are bad. Nor am I saying that everyone who has one is doing Christmas wrong. I am simply sharing how my family took an inconvenient situation and let God teach us through it. *Public Service Announcement Over* My mother and I decided that for our “gift from mom” we would each get $40 to spend on something from the Samaritans purse Christmas catalog. In short, the catalog is set up like any other catalog (Macy’s, Penny’s, etc...). The twist is that the things you order are for those in severe need or crisis in another country. You can order things like blankets, food, clothing, and even a goat. For more information about this wonderful opportunity to give the love of God in the form of a gift to someone in need, click on the following link. I mentioned to my boyfriend later that week how I didn’t want to have a Christmas tree in our future home together (yes, we talk about these things). He essentially responded with, “I was thinking the same thing, I’m glad the lord led your heart to the same conclusion as mine”. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Christmas trees. I’m not saying I intend to boycott the trees and never have anything resembling a tree in my house. I still think they are beautiful and a wonderful symbol of such a joyful season. I do; however, want to make sure that my family (now and in the future) doesn’t confuse Christ and his purpose for our lives with gifts and a huge tree in our living room.
Still trying to strive, Brooklyn I’ve been learning a lot lately about who I am as a woman of God and what that entails. I have spent most of my life bouncing back and forth between feeling powerless and feeling like the weight of the world rested on my shoulders. I was recently challenged through multiple different sources to focus on the woman of God I was made to be. I was not challenged to be selfish and throw any love for others out the door. Instead, I was called to cultivate myself as a woman of God to better my impact on the world for him.
Now, real talk. I honestly have no idea who I am. Not only do I not know who I am, but for the longest time I didn’t know who I wanted to be. Most of my late teen / adult life I have been aiming to be the version of me that everyone else in my life needed. I had been doing that for so long that I was left with no idea how to find my way back to the woman God created. This is part of the reason why I created this blog. Hopefully if I get some of the crazy ideas, dreams, thoughts, fears, and so forth out of my head and into the real world, I can sort through my thoughts and make room for the words that God is whispering into my spiritual ear. What I do know is that I want to be a woman of God. I saw a pin on Pinterest that caught my attention once. It said, “Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the Devil says, “Oh crap, she’s up””. Honestly…, I saw this pin about a year ago. I came across it again a few days ago and thought, This is the woman I want to be. What is holding me back from being this woman that is so full of God that she even inconveniences the devil? As those thoughts were planted in my head a few days ago, today God showed me some good words from Beth Moore. In her book, Praying God’s Word she said, “Satan’s already been defeated. Most of the power he wields is from pure deception and bluffing. Greater is he who is in us! (John 4:4)” (2009, p. 15). If that doesn’t empower you like it did me, I don’t know what will. I suddenly had a new resolve for discovering a way for God to live in me, learning more about this Satan defeating deity, and digging deeper into who God created me to be. So, look out world. There is a new Brooklyn stepping out of bed this morning. Or, maybe it’s the old, original Brooklyn come back from the grave of depression, doubt, and fear. Either way, this woman is not only going to give the devil a run for his money, but she is also going to show God’s love to others through this journey of discovering God and thus herself as well. There will hopefully be weekly updates to come, along with more lighthearted, or maybe a more solemn, subject matter. Keep rising above, Brooklyn |
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December 2017
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